Ball-in-a-maze puzzle games are known in the art. Generally, such games include manipulating a ball through a maze or a labyrinth from a start position to a finish position. Some of such games may include perforations in the platform on which the ball moves. The player needs to avoid these perforations while manipulating the ball toward the finish position.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,011,662 to Black et al, entitled “Three Dimensional Maze Puzzle and Game” directs to a hand-held playing board which includes different maze structures on each of two faces of the board. Holes extend through the board between the two maze structures. Furthermore, each maze structure is divided approximately in half by an impassable barrier. A playing piece is moved by tilting the board. When the ball passes through the board from one maze structure to the other, the board must be turned over to view the other maze structure. A player movies a from the start position at one end on one face through the maze structures back and forth through the board until the ball arrives at a finish position at the other end on the other face.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0286472 to Harvey, entitled “Pathway Puzzle” directs to a puzzle game which includes a set of coaxial polygons (e.g., such as circles), which are individually rotatable. Each polygon has maze-like pathway on it. Some pathways continue forward from an adjacent outer polygon to an adjacent inner polygon. Some pathways will loop back from an adjacent outer polygon back to that same outer polygon and vice versa while other pathways will simply terminate in dead-ends. The object of the game is to rotate the polygons axially, until they reach a special solution configuration. This solution configuration is achieved when an unbroken pathway exists starting at the outside edge of the outermost polygon, through adjacent polygons, in such a way that it reaches the center polygon and then continues back through adjacent polygons and terminates at the outside edge of the outermost polygon.